Selfo

Selfo is a class of abstract strategy board games subscribed to the category of connection games. Its name derives from the phenomenon of self-organization (increase in a system's organization without external guidance), since during the game the sets of pieces might flow in a coordinated way as they step on the board. Despite its very simple definition (“group your set of pieces by moving in turns to adjacent cells”) complex self-organization processes takes place during the game under concrete circumstances (a balanced distribution of pieces and players with a similar level of expertise), and is the result of abrupt and deep changes in the tactics. Since a big number of variants have been found to meet the conditions for self-organization, the particular values given to the traditional parameters that define a game (i.e., board tiling, size and initial position, or number of pieces and players) are not so relevant. The Selfo class of connection games is defined, instead, by the interrelations among parameters in order to favor self-organization. Subclasses of Selfo derive upon the move length (number of movements of a piece in a single turn to adjacent empty cells). In a generic Selfo-n game, a player can move one piece from 0 (passing on the turn) to n consecutive steps.

An algorithm has been designed to play Selfo at a human level, and an implementation of it is publicly accessible.